Essex County workers who stayed home after blizzard to lose a day off

ESSEX COUNTY — Essex County employees who did not come to work during late December’s blizzard are being charged either a vacation or a sick day, leading at least two union leaders to file grievances with the county.

Joe Calabro, the business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1158, and David H. Weiner, the president of the Communications Workers of America, Local 1081, who together represent about 1,800 of the county’s 3,500 employees, said the county’s decision to stay open and then dock employees a day off ran against the state of emergency’s purpose, which was to keep people from traveling.

"They were told to stay off the road," Calabro said.

Instead of docking employees who did not come in, Calabro wants the county to provide compensatory time both to people who worked and to those who did not make in it in for their shift.

Since the blizzard took place at the end of the year, when employees likely had already exhausted their personal and vacation days, officials are allowing workers to take the day from their 2011 allocations.

"I really bent over backwards on this," the county executive, Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., said . "I was pretty lenient."

There were no accidents involving county personnel attributable to the blizzard, he said.

DiVincenzo said that closing down offices would have compromised operations at the county’s jail and hospital and would have obliged the county to pay double time to employees who did show up for work.

"I’ve always kept the county open," said DiVincenzo, who is in his ninth year as executive.

Weiner and Calabro said some county buildings were closed because they were impassable. Weiner suggested to his members that they comply with the county’s dictates, but to do so under protest.

"We’re not asking for money. We’re asking for a day off on another time," he said.

Alan C. Abramowitz, the county’s director of human resources, said about 800 of the county’s 3,500 employees showed up to work. Some worked two shifts to cover absences, particularly at the hospital, he said. "There were people sleeping there that night," he said